CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest
Call: P49X
Operator(s): W0YK
Station: P40L/P49Y
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 543
40: 1042
20: 1035
15: 989
10: 2
------------
Total: 3611 Prefixes = 895 Total Score = 13,890,400
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Another fun weekend on the radio! Thanks to the thousands of operators who
participated in CQ WPX RTTY, few of which will be reading this report. As
Iâ??ve noted many times, the casual non-contest operators that fill our logs
are the backbone of success in any contest and this one is no exception.
And, then, there was the sun with its obstacle course of solar activity that
kept us changing our operation plans, especially single-ops optimizing their
30-hour score. Saturday night between 01-03z here in Aruba, both 80 and 40
exhibited a temporary short-term blackout followed by a period of extraordinary
propagation. The signal levels from Europe were the strongest and clearest
Iâ??ve heard them. 80 meters sounded like a good 15-meter day which was
uncanny. Sunday morning repeated the same thing in a couple of on-again,
off-again cycles on 15 and 20 meters. At 1746z, I took an unplanned one-hour
break when both 20 and 15 were completely dead. My 120/hour runs on 15 and 20
went to zero in less than five minutes. Prior experience with these
disturbances indicated that it would be short-lived, maybe 20-40 minutes. So,
would that be the case this time? Or, would it be longer or shorter? Would
the contest period end before I got my 30 hours in?! Interestingly, 10 meters
continued limping along with its few South American and occasional US stations,
seemingly unaffected. Many have reported great conditions, but they seemed
about the same as 2010 from here, except for the three temporary
black-out/extraordinary periods this weekend.
My third SO3R radio was on 10 meters all weekend with a bandscope and
Packet-fed bandmap for monitoring activity. There were openings and light
activity mid-day, at least into North America, but not enough participants to
warrant spending any time there. My two 10m QSOs resulted from moving P43A to
10 at 8:39pm local time from 40/80 and having a new LU prefix call me on the
first CQ.
I came into the weekend expecting to fall short of last yearâ??s personal best
in this contest, which was a high bar to strive for again. I usually start on
80 and 40, but looking at past logs, the rate on 80 is nothing for the first
couple hours, probably because everyone is on the higher bands. So, this year
I decided to start on 20 (and 40) to see what difference it made. Well, the
20m rate was outstanding, with strong signals from Europe much longer than I
expected and I stayed until the rate dropped at 0240z.
Compared to my hourly and cumulative statistics from last year, the QSO rate
was much higher but the point rate was way down. It looked like a bad decision
to start on 20 when 80 was open. Then, some rough mental calculations showed
that my points seemed incorrectly low. From Aruba, 99+% of QSOs are
three-pointers. Watching the point total go up only 2 (or 4) points for US
contacts and 3 (or 6) points for European contacts confirmed my suspicion.
WriteLog was scoring as though I were operating in North America. Until my
first break, then, I had the additional task of mental arithmetic to track how
I was doing. I put a note out on the WriteLog reflector about a â??bugâ?? and
W5GN replied that I should check a configuration file statement. Telling
WriteLog that I was in Aruba instantly corrected the scoring, but I didnâ??t
get this figured out until Sunday.
Once I got my real-time statistics corrected in my head, I went from bummed out
to ecstatic because Friday night was significantly ahead of 2010. Besides the
sheer fun of just operating the contest, I was jazzed with such a head start on
the Qs, points and prefixes. I was almost 800 QSO points up but that eroded to
only 350 by 2000z Saturday. The rate was good on 15 and 20 but below last
year, mainly on 15. Then, the first â??gray-outâ?? period occurred on 80 and
40 Saturday night where the signals nearly disappeared in the noise between
01-03z, followed by tremendous low-band conditions. When the rate dropped at
07z Saturday, I took my long early morning break and was now 170 QSO points
behind last year. Shucks!
Sunday, after a short rest and some breakfast for renewed energy, I endeavored
to make up the deficit, despite what the solar activity might have in store for
us. There were a couple of gray-out cycles and then the lights went out at
1745z. Both 15 ad 20 were dead. It was unreal to tune across both bands and
hear nothing but white noise! Just minutes prior, both bands were wall-to-wall
signals. I guessed that this would be temporary, but one never knows and I
still had a couple hours left for my 30-hour score. My dilemma then was
whether to start back up when the band came back, or to take a full 60-minute
break and hope that the bands stayed open, and strongly so, for another two
hours before 00z Monday. I opted for the hour break and that turned out to be
perfect as the bands did come back and got heated up great before I dove in
again.
I was intensely focused on my QSO point total and prefixes for all of Sunday.
I wanted to make up the shortfall compared to 2010. I just barely squeaked out
yet another personal best, at least in claimed score. At 30 hours, I was 87 QSO
points ahead of 2010 and 2 mults ahead. A photo-finish that was very satisfying
after dodging the several sudden solar disturbances. There were 124 more QSOs,
due to 248 more on 20 but 95 less on 40. 15 and 80 were nearly identical
between the two years. Iâ??m doubtful, though, that the final results will
exceed 2010 because with these conditions I expect a higher error rate.
The latest call sign stacking enhancements in WriteLog are extremely effective
in handling pileups and tail-enders. (Iâ??m not sure whether some of the
tail-ending was brilliant or poor operating, but the call stack UI handled it
all easily.) Several times as I was about to send my TU/CQ message, a new call
sign would jump on the screen and I could stack it and immediately give a report
in a â??TU, NOWâ?? message, thus saving a CQ and pileup cycle. It was also
trivial to work stations in the order that they appeared in the pileup rather
than first working the last station that called. Second, multiple decoders
were a lifesaver in conditions like these. I had five parallel decoder windows
setup on each of the three computers/radios. Many times they read the same, but
very often only one or two would copy cleanly and that saved me from asking for
repeats. For those interested, I used the Standard, Flutter (FIR), Multipath
and AA6YQ 512FIR profiles in MMTTY plus the hardware DXP38 modem. The latter
was universally best at decoding off-frequency calls, even as I was slewing the
RIT to bring in a signal, the DXP38 acquired the call sign much sooner. But,
there was no clear â??best decoderâ?? for all marginal copy. It was surprising
how each decoder had its moment in the sun (pun intended, sorry) this weekend
when only it would decode the signal.
Off-frequency callers â?¦ there were significantly more than Iâ??ve ever
experienced before. Are people using automatic frequency control and not using
it properly? I do use narrow receive filtering on my side, but it has been the
same for several years now. However, many of the off-frequency callers were
much further away than a wide filter on their side would allow. There was
clearly a frequency offset between their receive and transmit. Iâ??ve come to
have a call sign list in my head of who to expect to never call on my transmit
frequency. ;>) On the other hand, I was very impressed with the many others
who called in truly zero-beat, less than 5 cycles off. That really boosts
rate. Iâ??m not complaining, though. I contest for fun and off-frequency
callers are just one more obstacle to deal with.
Thanks to John, W6LD/P40L, and Andy, AE6Y/P49Y, for the cottage station here.
Iâ??m setting up and looking forward to ARRL DX CW next weekend with John who
arrives late Thursday. Letâ??s hope these great conditions hang on through
that weekend!
Ed â?" P49X (W0YK)
QSO/Pref by hour and band
Hour 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm OffTime
D1-0000Z --+-- 68/46 85/64 --+-- --+-- 153/110 153/110
D1-0100Z - 84/54 71/32 - - 155/86 308/196
D1-0200Z 21/8 83/46 36/14 - - 140/68 448/264
D1-0300Z 60/20 87/38 - - - 147/58 595/322
D1-0400Z 41/19 86/36 - - - 127/55 722/377
D1-0500Z 55/13 72/26 - - - 127/39 849/416
D1-0600Z 56/14 74/25 - - - 130/39 979/455
D1-0700Z 37/5 55/17 - - - 92/22 1071/477
D1-0800Z 24/4 42/13 --+-- --+-- --+-- 66/17 1137/494 12
D1-0900Z - - - - - 0/0 1137/494 60
D1-1000Z - - - - - 0/0 1137/494 60
D1-1100Z - - - - - 0/0 1137/494 60
D1-1200Z - - - - - 0/0 1137/494 60
D1-1300Z - - 13/7 14/4 - 27/11 1164/505 47
D1-1400Z - - 62/17 80/25 - 142/42 1306/547
D1-1500Z - - 64/15 91/18 - 155/33 1461/580
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- 38/6 88/13 --+-- 126/19 1587/599
D1-1700Z - - 83/22 93/12 - 176/34 1763/633
D1-1800Z - - 94/17 94/6 - 188/23 1951/656
D1-1900Z - - 71/17 82/10 - 153/27 2104/683
D1-2000Z - - 83/13 70/11 - 153/24 2257/707
D1-2100Z - - 76/7 48/7 - 124/14 2381/721
D1-2200Z - - - - - 0/0 2381/721 60
D1-2300Z - 47/9 36/9 - - 83/18 2464/739 20
D2-0000Z 8/0 63/13 29/9 --+-- --+-- 100/22 2564/761
D2-0100Z 38/2 64/8 - - - 102/10 2666/771
D2-0200Z 55/6 35/5 - - 2/1 92/12 2758/783
D2-0300Z 27/4 44/6 - - - 71/10 2829/793
D2-0400Z 49/1 54/5 - - - 103/6 2932/799
D2-0500Z 28/3 50/8 - - - 78/11 3010/810
D2-0600Z 38/4 32/7 - - - 70/11 3080/821
D2-0700Z 6/0 2/0 - - - 8/0 3088/821 51
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 3088/821 60
D2-0900Z - - - - - 0/0 3088/821 60
D2-1000Z - - - - - 0/0 3088/821 60
D2-1100Z - - - - - 0/0 3088/821 60
D2-1200Z - - - - - 0/0 3088/821 60
D2-1300Z - - - - - 0/0 3088/821 60
D2-1400Z - - 18/1 52/7 - 70/8 3158/829 21
D2-1500Z - - 35/4 77/9 - 112/13 3270/842
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- 36/4 85/11 --+-- 121/15 3391/857
D2-1700Z - - 15/2 48/7 - 63/9 3454/866
D2-1800Z - - 7/4 - - 7/4 3461/870 60
D2-1900Z - - 58/8 46/9 - 104/17 3565/887
D2-2000Z - - 25/6 21/2 - 46/8 3611/895
Total: 543/1031042/3621035/278 989/151 2/1
Pts by hour and band.
80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm OffTime
D1-0000Z ---+- 408 253 ---+- ---+- 661 661
D1-0100Z - 500 210 - - 710 1371
D1-0200Z 126 498 107 - - 731 2102
D1-0300Z 360 520 - - - 880 2982
D1-0400Z 246 514 - - - 760 3742
D1-0500Z 330 432 - - - 762 4504
D1-0600Z 334 444 - - - 778 5282
D1-0700Z 222 326 - - - 548 5830
D1-0800Z 144 250 ---+- ---+- ---+- 394 6224 12
D1-0900Z - - - - - 0 6224 60
D1-1000Z - - - - - 0 6224 60
D1-1100Z - - - - - 0 6224 60
D1-1200Z - - - - - 0 6224 60
D1-1300Z - - 38 42 - 80 6304 47
D1-1400Z - - 184 238 - 422 6726
D1-1500Z - - 191 273 - 464 7190
D1-1600Z ---+- ---+- 114 263 ---+- 377 7567
D1-1700Z - - 248 278 - 526 8093
D1-1800Z - - 282 281 - 563 8656
D1-1900Z - - 212 244 - 456 9112
D1-2000Z - - 249 208 - 457 9569
D1-2100Z - - 227 142 - 369 9938
D1-2200Z - - - - - 0 9938 60
D1-2300Z - 282 108 - - 390 10328 20
D2-0000Z 48 376 87 ---+- ---+- 511 10839
D2-0100Z 228 384 - - - 612 11451
D2-0200Z 326 206 - - 3 535 11986
D2-0300Z 162 262 - - - 424 12410
D2-0400Z 294 324 - - - 618 13028
D2-0500Z 168 298 - - - 466 13494
D2-0600Z 228 192 - - - 420 13914
D2-0700Z 36 12 - - - 48 13962 51
D2-0800Z ---+- ---+- ---+- ---+- ---+- 0 13962 60
D2-0900Z - - - - - 0 13962 60
D2-1000Z - - - - - 0 13962 60
D2-1100Z - - - - - 0 13962 60
D2-1200Z - - - - - 0 13962 60
D2-1300Z - - - - - 0 13962 60
D2-1400Z - - 54 156 - 210 14172 21
D2-1500Z - - 105 231 - 336 14508
D2-1600Z ---+- ---+- 108 253 ---+- 361 14869
D2-1700Z - - 45 142 - 187 15056
D2-1800Z - - 21 - - 21 15077 60
D2-1900Z - - 172 135 - 307 15384
D2-2000Z - - 74 62 - 136 15520
Total: 3252 6228 3089 2948 3
80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
NA 336 587 699 645 0 2267 62.8
EU 197 426 253 316 0 1192 33.0
SA 2 11 12 18 2 45 1.2
AS 6 12 61 2 0 81 2.2
AF 2 4 5 7 0 18 0.5
OC 0 2 4 1 0 7 0.2
-------------------------------------------------------------
4O 1 1 1 1 4
4X 1 1 2
5B 1 1
8P 1 1
9A 1 3 1 2 7
9X 1 1
BY 1 1
CE 1 1 2
CM 6 3 2 11
CN 1 1
CT 1 2 3
CT3 1 2 3
CX 1 3 4
D4 1 1 2
DL 35 71 52 78 236
E7 3 1 4
EA 8 13 10 16 47
EA6 1 1
EA8 2 2 2 3 9
EI 1 2 3
ES 1 5 3 2 11
EU 3 3 2 1 9
F 9 12 9 21 51
FY 1 1
G 7 22 10 25 64
GD 1 1
GM 2 3 6 3 14
GU 1 1
GW 2 1 1 4
HA 3 9 6 6 24
HB 5 6 2 5 18
HC 1 1
HI 1 1 2
HL 3 3
I 13 35 28 42 118
IS 1 1
IT9 2 1 3
JA 2 51 1 54
K 306 531 634 592 2063
KL 1 2 1 4
KP4 2 2 2 1 7
LA 2 4 6 6 18
LU 4 2 7 1 14
LY 4 6 1 3 14
LZ 2 4 2 2 10
OE 3 5 4 4 16
OH 6 6 10 7 29
OH0 1 1 2
OK 9 17 9 9 44
OM 5 11 3 5 24
ON 5 8 7 11 31
OY 1 1
OZ 3 4 2 9
P4 1 1 2 1 1 6
PA 4 13 11 9 37
PJ4 1 1
PY 4 6 4 14
S5 3 10 7 5 25
SM 4 5 10 2 21
SP 16 24 14 13 67
ST 1 1
SV 1 4 5 1 11
SV9 1 1
TF 1 1 2
TI 1 1
UA 18 46 11 8 83
UA9 4 5 4 13
UN 1 1
UR 15 47 7 10 79
V3 1 1 1 1 4
VE 25 40 50 42 157
VK 3 3
VP8 1 1
VP9 1 1
VR 1 1
VU 2 1 3
XE 1 5 4 5 15
YB 1 1 2
YL 4 2 1 2 9
YO 2 11 3 6 22
YU 2 4 3 2 11
YV 1 1
Z3 1 1 2
ZC4 1 1 2
ZF 1 1
ZL 1 1 2
ZS 1 1
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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